When using the voeventdb list-query endpoints, we can control
ordering using the order parameter. So for example, if we simply
request the first 5 IVORNs with no modifiers, we get the first entries
inserted into the database:

In [ ]:

apiv1.list_ivorn(n_max=5)

In this case, whatever happened to arrive just after the database was
switched on. But, we can change the ordering, choosing from one of the
order-values.
For example, to retrieve the most recent ‘observation’ VOEvents, we’ll
request the list in ‘author-datetime descending’ order:

With this last feature, we can start using voeventdb for
applications such as reviewing the most recent alerts, and perhaps even
planning our follow-up. Suppose we want to retrieve the 10 most-recent
GRB-event alerts from the Swift BAT:

That about covers all the major features of voeventdb, as
demonstrated using the voeventdb.remote client-library. Comments,
questions, bug-reports and other contributions are all welcomed - you
can leave a note on the issue
tracker or
find more contact details at http://4pisky.org/voevents/.